KHADIM ALI
A member of the persecuted Shia muslim Hazara ethnic minority, Khadim Ali has been resident in Australia since 2009 when he came here on a distinguished person visa sponsored by several local art luminaries. Since then his reputation has grown quickly from a relatively unknown artist to one whose work has attracted global attention.
ON THE DAY PAKISTANI ARTIST KHADIM ALI AND I METhe was busy practising what looked like calligraphy in his Parramatta studio. He sat cross-legged on the floor surrounded by sheets of white paper and, using a broad-tipped Copic marker, drew swirling arabesques that shifted from an impenetrable black line to scratchy but beautiful translucent curlicues. They seemed to mimic Farsi script but Ali explained they were actually incomprehensible, they were simply rhythmic linear patterns and their innate beauty resided in the line’s repetitive and free-flowing rhythm. It was quite mesmerising.
Ali’s delicate watercolour and gouache paintings are held by New York’s Guggenheim and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and The British Museum as well as several Australian institutions including the National Gallery of Art in Canberra, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, and the Queensland Art Gallery/ Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) in Brisbane. He has participated in exhibitions too numerous 2009, (13) 2012 and QAGOMA’s 5th in 2006.
